


Handle With Care

by jenni3penny



Series: Cherry Wood and Whiskey [11]
Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-04 02:04:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,888
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20463236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jenni3penny/pseuds/jenni3penny
Summary: "You wanna start a fight or you wanna sit your ass down and let me help you?" // "There a third option?"





	Handle With Care

The handplane hit the floor with a clatter and his muttered "_Damn it_" barely broke the stillness of the basement. It was the sound of the old tool slapping the floor and rebounding that had really startled her, her attention jerked upward from the case file she'd been catching up on.

"Second time tonight," she commented softly, referencing the first time he'd dropped it, watching him brace his hands against his hips in silent response. He continued to glare at the offending tool even as she stretched along her bench and watched him. "You're tired."

"It's the rain," he admitted in answer, the back of one wrist running against an itch on his nose. "The cold… My hands're done with me tonight."

She knew that inclement weather tended to flare the arthritis that was settling deep into his wrists and knuckles. Hell, the rainy and cool weather they'd been having gave the old injuries in her own wrists fits. But she couldn't just sit by and watch his frustration manifest so easily, not if it was going to creep in on their quiet private time. Basement time was some of their most personally intimate time - she didn't usually even let the kids (his small adoring neighbors _or_ his grown but equally adoring team) barge in on that.

Setting the file down on the handmade bench and shoving aside the velvety soft throw she was using, she made a shushed noise against her teeth and stood.

"Don't worry about it," Gibbs murmured as she approached, waving her off as he bent and grabbed up the planer in his right hand.

"You wanna start a fight or you wanna sit your ass down and let me help you?"

His broad shoulders rippled through a shrug as he mocked maybe thinking it over and tossed the hand plane onto his workbench. "There a third option?"

"No," she snipped back, giving his hip a pat so that she could nudge him sideways. "There's a reward but first you have to sit your ass on the stool and - "

"Loud and clear, Lieutenant," he laughed between them, interrupting the arch dryness of her voice. He let her shove at him lightly, her palm pressed to his stomach and catching up a handful of his hoodie before he grabbed her closer. The chaste kiss was a mutual decision, met together as she stepped into pushing him backwards. Gibbs just gave in to her and plopped onto the stool, trying not to smirk as she caught his right hand up in between hers.

She started slowly pressing her thumbs into the spaces between his knuckles, feeling the bones shift beneath the slight pressure. "I swear to Christ, you're worse than the boys."

"Which ones?"

"All of them together," she asserted, kneeing his legs a little farther apart and forcing him to sway gently back as she got closer. The hand she didn't have a death grip on caught around the back of one knee and he exhaled as he smoothed his palm up the leggings she'd been wearing all evening. She felt calluses catch at the fabric and he switched directions, stroking back down while she smirked silently as him.

Jack side-smiled and shook her head minutely, bemused and enjoying the personal softness of his affection, the possessive curl of his palm finding her calf. "Can't help yourself."

"Always been a leg and ass man," he shrugged, exhaling just before a hiss passed his teeth and his fingers jerked on an involuntary flex. "_Damn_."

One of her hands snapped up and back as though she'd been bitten, fingers curled up as he gripped the other hand in his and frowned. "That bad?"

"Just right there," he nodded over the back of his hand as he stretched long fingers out, putting his palm to hers. Jack dropped her left hand back on top, frictioning heat against his skin.

"How's it feel on the range, Agent Gibbs?"

"_Fine_." His voice was suddenly more defensive than she had expected, a little biting. "Six month evals are in my file, _Doctor_ Sloane."

"Ooooh, I see." She widened her eyes, one brow arched as she banked her shoulders back. Her jaw came down as she studied his face, taking in the pursed lips and half pout he was giving her. "So when it comes to me possibly criticizing your work the marriage license just gets chucked _right_ out the window?"

He blew air past his lips on a huff and pinched at the back of her thigh at once, playing into her sass. She watched his jaw flex as he tried not to match her laugh or meet her grin with a smile of his own. "Not sure it's even valid, really."

"Oh, _you little shit_," she muttered happily, trying to catch against him, his hands, his shirt, anything. She found herself half trapped up and laughing instead, grappling against him to get the upper hand and fuming when he used his heel to catch at the bend in her knee. He slanted her balance and caught her close at once, chuckling as she squealed her anger and slapped his shoulder. "Unfair advantage."

"Because I'm sitting?" he grunted, amused and giving up a show-off grin as he tugged her onto his lap. He disentangled their hands a moment, pulling her knees up along his hips as she leaned into the movement. There seemed to be very few things in the world he loved more than the way she would sometimes sling her arms around his shoulders and press up his chest, mouth brushing his cheek. It always made him romantically weak for her, made him a little more agreeable or pliant. Not that she _kept track_ of those sorta things…

"_No_, because I think you're cute and it's a distraction," she corrected quietly, whispering it and reaching back to playfully slap his hand away from her ass even while she arched closer. She laughed freely as his other hand teased up her ribs on the other side, making her jump away as she smiled over him. "You're so handsome."

She didn't necessarily expect an answer from him at all, not when the tips of his ears visibly burned up pink (just as she knew they would). Jack just smirked even wider, one hand coming back up, fingertips walking their way up his chest. "I mean it."

He breathed in through his nose, eyes meeting hers briefly before he studied her mouth. The intensity of his stare went doubled, heavier and hotter as she purposely teased at him and sent her tongue along her bottom lip. Gibbs huffed out a silent laugh in answer and his hands lifted. She leaned back slightly, expecting his touch but watching with interest as he hesitated a moment and then slowly signed to her, the movements unfamiliar but his sincerity so evident that she sighed.

"I have no idea what you just said," she hushed against his mouth, kissing him lightly before lifting her head. His smile was so wide with warmth that it brightened his eyes as he slowly repeated the movements. "Repeating it isn't gonna help, hon. I don't understand - "

He made a quick stalling movement, right hand pressing his fingertips into his chest before it lifted. His thumb went grazing along his jaw and then both hands clasped together between them. He started once more but she watched him silently mouth the words at the same time.

_My wife_…

Her hips reflexively went downward, all of her snugging deeper into his lap as her lungs went loose, shoulders relaxing. There was a curing comfort that came to her when she let him curl her up in his arms, the sense of safety that had always lived in the space between them (or the lack thereof, really). "Do I even need to hear the rest?"

"Think you can probably guess." He laughed freely and shrugged at the knowing brow arch she gave him.

Jack gave him an even more (supposedly) shrewd look, squinting at him as she teased her fingertips along his temple and hairline. "Was it dirty or sweet?"

"_Yes_," he said with humor, bending his curled fist forward to mock a nod as he smirked up at her. Gibbs upped his jaw, encouraging her closer with a widening smile and broad palms catching at her ribs. She arched into the touch, stretching up his chest so that her mouth met his.

Her lips brushed along his, kissing words with barely any sound, "Handsome _and_ charming."

There hasn't been much patience left in him anyhow, not with how she had been teasing herself closer and heavier into his lap. It only took the lowering of her tone and and whispered promise of her lips barely touching his to make his hands flex into her shirt and hair. Both fists brought her closer as he kissed her, locking her into his chest and curling her around his shoulders as he drove his tongue into her mouth. No more teasing, he was all hands and mouth and force and there were times that she expected absolutely nothing less from him.

"Bet a hot cup of coffee in your hand would make it feel better," she offered softly when he drove their foreheads together to catch his breath. The shrug he gave as he angled his jaw down was right on par for vintage Basement Gibbs, extremely non-committal.

"I got other options?" he asked just under her ear, drawing a shiver from her spine and up along her hairline.

"Tea?"

His tongue went just before his teeth along the shell of her ear, voice so rumbly warm in her ear that she felt her hips involuntarily shudder closer. "Sock water's _not_ an option."

Jack smirked, lifting her her jaw and tipping her head as he rubbed his smile down her neck. She forced herself to breath, trying to slow the near pant of her lungs even as his palms skated up her ribs. "Hot chocolate?"

"Hot wife?" he recommended, purposely catching up the fabric of her shirt and finding his way under it. The groan he made when he found only hot bare skin under his palms matched the way his face slacked and blue eyes darkened.

Her slim shoulders lifted on a shrug and she could barely swallow the smug grin as she pressed him still, "I'm sorry, I'm not entirely sure the marriage is valid. Coffee will have to do."

He pinched the back of one thigh in retaliation and then lifted her up fast enough to make her squeal out a pretty uncharacteristic sound, all of it tumbling into laughter as he leaned forward into standing.

"_Smartass_," he half growled as she used the imbalance to press a foot down, shoving forward so that they were more even as he stood up entirely. Both her feet hit the floor the same time her mouth caught his, her hands on his cheeks as she moaned into the kiss. It was slower and softer than the last, trailing off into a few sporadic kisses that ended with deep breathing on both parts.

His appreciative smile flashed over her, lit her up and bright while he tugged her closer by the hips. "Got enough _hot_ on my hands right now, thanks."

"Well, a handful _at least_."


End file.
